Police who deployed “less lethal” rounds but killed a 50-year-old man earlier this month were concerned that the man, wildly swinging a belt and acting erratically in front of a McDonald’s, could harm people inside the restaurant, according to a critical incident report issued by the Fullerton Police Department on Friday, March 29.
The department also released body-worn camera footage.
Officers responded to the McDonald’s restaurant at 1341 S. Brookhurst Road just south of Orangethorpe Avenue around 3 a.m. on March 6, after a restaurant manager called and said two men were acting erratically near the front doors, possibly under the influence of drugs. The manager said she was concerned for the safety of coworkers who would be arriving soon for the morning shift.
After officers arrived and tried unsuccessfully to get the man to put down the belt and cooperate with them, a Taser was deployed twice with no effect, and a second officer fired five bean bag rounds at the man, the video shows. One of those rounds penetrated the man’s chest cavity, causing him to bleed profusely, Fullerton police Sgt. Ryan O’Neil said.
Officers applied a chest seal and attempted to help the man, the video shows. Officers also applied pads from a defibrillator, but the machine gave a sign not to shock the man, O’Neil said.
The man, identified as Alejandro Campos Rios, 50, of Buena Park, was taken by paramedics to a hospital, but he died.
The video shows the first officer to arrive observing two men near the front door. Rios is shirtless, swinging a belt, speaking in both English and Spanish and at times singing a jingle. Rios also appears to be fighting imaginary people and his behavior is “consistent with someone under the influence of drugs,” O’Neil said. Trash litters the artificial turf area around them, just to the left of the front door.
Officers did not know if the restaurant door was locked, O’Neil said.
The second man eventually complies with officers, but Rios refuses officers’ commands to drop the belt and sit down.
After the officer identifies himself as police, Rios replies, “I don’t give a (expletive).”
Other officers arrive, and, for 10 minutes, attempt to de-escalate the situation and get Rios to drop the belt, but he refuses and continues to swing the accessory back and forth and over his head.
The officer with the Taser uses a “warning arc feature” on the Taser, the video shows. Rios then begins approaching the officer with the belt when he deploys the Taser, which does not affect the suspect.
Simultaneously, a second officer with a bean bag shotgun fires four rounds and Rios runs toward the front door of the restaurant. Concerned for the safety of employees inside, the officer fires a fifth bean bag at Rios, which causes him to fall to the ground and drop the belt. As officers approach, Rios is already visibly bleeding.
O’Neil said it is recommended that bean bags be fired between 20 and 50 feet away from the intended target, adding that the officer who fired the rounds was within that range.
Rios’ cause of death is still being investigated by the Orange County coroner’s office. Whether drugs were in Rios’ system is not yet known.
Fullerton police and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office also are continuing to investigate the death.
Source: Orange County Register
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